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Memo to Barney Frank — 24 Comments

  1. Frank may not be able to crunch the numbers accurately when it comes to big bank finances (maybe that’s a feature, not a bug!), but I’d say he’s exactly right.

    If Brown wins, ObamaCare is toast — no matter how it’s sliced.

    In that event, the whole political gameboard is overturned and everything has to be recalculated.

    I’m sure we’ll get to it in this forum, but although I’m still saying Brown will win, I’m superstitious enough to wait until Wednesday for that discussion.

  2. I don’t know. The cynic in me sez look for a new “Gang of Fourteen,” if Brown wins. McCain can play at being a conservative since that calculation works out at this point in time. But with a filibuster again operative, you think he’s going to resist the temptation to play moderate statesman and kick conservatives in the teeth?

    That or the weak sisters from Maine are going to get paid.

  3. no one you know: I disagree about the Mainers. I believe that, if Brown were to win, they could read the writing on the wall as well as anybody. Massachusetts is even more liberal than Maine.

  4. neo, thanks for the reply, and I’ll certainly defer to you regarding things New England.
    I know I should just appreciate the fact that zombies of MA may be beaten back for however briefly, but then I look at the makeup of DC and can’t help but feel the bile rise.

    Still, go Scott Brown!

  5. We can be sure that a Brown victory will not bring conservatives out of the desert and into a land flowing with milk and honey anymore than Obama did for progressives.

  6. Huxley,

    This might be the beginning of the thing you’ve been expecting, no? Here’s hoping. The thing that strikes me especially acutely about this race is the fact that we conservatives have been wondering where our leader, or leaders, are, and where they will come from. If Brown prevails (and maybe even if he doesn’t), it will be a sign that they’re there, and will be revealed when we need them most of all.

    And to Barney Frank, when he says a Brown victory will kill the health care monster, I can only say again:
    “Do you promise?”

  7. betsybounds: I generally expect that straightline projections into the future will meet with negative feedback, even if I don’t know what that feedback will be.

    My main worry after Obama’s election was that the American people had shifted substantially to the left and were in sync with Obama. Once I saw all the opposition rise up — Tea Parties, etc. — to eclipse the momentum of Obama’s following, I figured we’d find a way to stop Obama somehow.

    I didn’t expect it to happen so fast. Though, to give credit where it’s due, Obama, Pelosi, and Reid have played their hands with great greed and stupidity.

  8. The scheming begins.

    Democrats Seeking to Push Health Bill Through House

    WASHINGTON – The White House and Democratic Congressional leaders, scrambling for a backup plan to rescue their health care legislation if Republicans win the special election in Massachusetts on Tuesday, are preparing to ask House Democrats to approve the Senate version of the bill, which would send the measure directly to President Obama for his signature.

    NY Times

    It’s hard to see that working, given the many differences between the House and Senate versions — such as the abortion exception in the House bill. The House bill squeaked through by only five votes in early November and the hostility towards the bill has only grown since then.

    I think Democrats will pay a terrible price for a very long time if they try, but maybe that’s the best the die-hard Dems have to force a purely partisan healthcare bill through and they figure it’s worth it.

  9. The MSM is hyping all the polls showing Brown as a big winner. I’m cynical enough to think they are playing it up as a way to energize the Democrats and make the Independents and Republicans complacement — possibly influencing turnout.

    Please don’t take the polls for granted if you are in MA. I still think it will be much closer than the polls suggest. Vote for Brown.

  10. I fail to see how any honest, intelligent observer can continue to think this whole thing is even remotely about health care, or health insurance, or whatever the day’s catch-phrase is. Its elements are being chewed on, ripped off, and swallowed or spat out, all with a view to whether interest groups will favor its passage or defeat. Even those who are pushing it don’t like it much, but know that they can tinker with the thing later. Passage is the key. Mark Steyn has been pointing out that the object is to alter the debate from pro v. con to who can best manage the bum system once it’s emplaced–as they do today in the UK, with the grotesquely named National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE). If we don’t find a way to stop it, we’re doomed to live under it, and the only things that will change will be the bureaucrats running it.

    Ugh.

  11. Rope. Pitchforks. Tar. Feathers. Rails.

    And, um, other stuff.

    Ah’m gonna git me suhm.

  12. Bawney Baby Bubby…You boy’ho running little ponzi grifter. Your pwecious wips to Gawd’s ears, Tootsie.

  13. Well, as others have pointed out, it won’t “kill” the bill (alas) — it will just make it impossible to pass WITHOUT bipartisan support.

    But the Dims are all about one-Party rule these days.

  14. I will be delighted with a Brown victory.

    However: we also thought that the Dims’ defeat in the Virginia and New Jersey races would be game-changers. The Juggernaut (Jugearnaut?) has rolled on regardless, over the bodies of devotees and opponents alike.

    Don’t look for them to stop if they lose in Massachusetts. Even if they lose big, it will only harden their determination to “service” the country in the agricultural fashion.

  15. Well here comes the paranoid part, to which I and others occasionally fall prey. These guys are acting like Brown Shirts. And we know what can follow the actions of such people.

    http://www.foundingbloggers.com/wordpress/2010/01/desperation-in-massachusetts-coakley-thugs-assault-cameraman-video/

    Plus ACORN. Plus SEIU. I don’t know. But it’s unsettling. The wizards are not interested in constitutional freedoms, and constitutional freedoms do not exercise any control they recognize.

    Huxley, these are the things that make me doubt that our system will be enough to stop the game that is, nearly without doubt, afoot. I hope it is, but I’m not going to bet anything I can’t afford to lose on it.

    There is ample historical precedent for the employ of such foul means to subvert and overthrow legitimate governance. It has enjoyed some success in the past. We are not immune, and we are fools if we thing we are.

    Go, Brown.

    And be ready to take a lot on.

  16. Bawney can disagree if he wishes, but I think the real affect will be to defeat an agenda which would kill health care. I’m all for that.

  17. > Though, to give credit where it’s due, Obama, Pelosi, and Reid have played their hands with great greed and stupidity.

    And to think that Carville’s 40-year-Reich is only going to last a nominal two, actually a defacto 14 months…

    At that, it’s still twice as long, percentage-wise, as the Nazis, and feels like it in every way.

    I’ll repeat myself: I’ve been saying all along that Obama would make us appreciate Jimmy Carter. I still contend that is, and will be recognized as such years from now, true.

  18. To my knowledge nobody has polled the dead, who always turn out in great numbers on election day and always vote democratic.

    So I’m not smiling yet.

  19. The Brown campaign is already organizing volunteer lawyers to watch the polling places.

    The Republican Party is already lawyered up to challenge any Democratic efforts to delay seating Brown in the Senate should he win.

    If the election is close, both sides will be aggressively examining ballots and challenging the recount process.

    Won’t get fooled again.

  20. While I hope that Brown wins, and I think he stands a great chance, if he does I firmly expect the democrats and Obama in particular not to give up on their health care plans.

    Shenanigans are in the works.

    Obama just has a personality that would go into complete denial that he could even possibly be wrong on the issue. He knows best, not us.

    He’s gonna double down, and the voters be damned.

  21. No way Obama & Co. will give up on their version of health care.

    Since last summer Obama has had many opportunities to choose between the center and the bunker. With the possible exception of Afghanistan, he has chosen the bunker every time.

    By now I’m convinced that Obama won’t change that approach until after big losses in the mid-terms and maybe not even then.

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